Live multimedia product catalog system that integrates with on-line stores

ABSTRACT

A live multimedia product catalog system that integrates with online stores includes at least one on-line provider of advertisements or online goods, a module to make and edit catalogs, a module to publish advertisements or online goods to each catalog, a network management module and desktop application programs to retrieve the multimedia catalogs automatically and display the contents. The live catalogs can be put on websites, or download to desktops, or put on portable storage medium. These catalogs only needs to be downloaded once, their contents are automatically updated.

FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relates to on-line shopping, on-line gaming, on lineentertainment, on line advertisements, out-of-home advertisements,electronic magazines, direct mails (DM), product catalogs ande-commerce.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Businesses are printing many catalogs and distributing to theircustomers. The printing & mailing cost are very high. Also, theseprinted catalogs are not timely responsive, the customers cannot getreal time product info through the printed catalogs. Furthermore, theseprinted catalogs cannot convey video or sound which are very useful tohelp customers making buying decisions. Lastly, these printed catalogsare not directly linked to businesses' online stores. If the customer isinterested in buying a product, they have to fill out a paper order formor telephone to place the order, or go to businesses' website and searchfor the product.

In other Business-to-business situations like exhibitions whereprofessional buyers and manufactures are gathering to make trades.Traditionally, the host company makes printed catalog with all theparticipating manufactures paying to list their products in the catalog,and the professional buyers get a free copy of the catalog or pay asmall fee for it. These catalogs have the same above mentionedshortcomings. On the other hand, many businesses are making onlinecatalogs and put them on the website for customers to download. Most ofthe online catalogs are simply adobe .pdf files, customers have todownload them every time, download speed is slow and in reality only avery small percentage of customers download them.

Furthermore, many businesses are putting their product catalogs on CDsor DVDs and send to their customers, but like the printed catalogs, theyare not live, the information in the CDs or DVDs are fixed and cannot beupdated automatically.

Lastly, when a person wants to send pictures or video to a friend,presently he can only send them through E-mail, his friend will open thee-mail and then save to their desktops one by one, and the process isquite inconvenient.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the live multimediaproduct catalog system that integrates with on-line stores consists ofat least one online provider of advertisements or on-line goods, amodule to make and edit different catalogs, a module to publish on-lineadvertisements or on-line goods to selected catalogs, a networkmanagement module and desktop application programs to retrievemultimedia catalogs automatically and display the contents.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the live multimediaproduct catalog that integrates with on-line stores allows businesses toeasily make multimedia catalogs, set their attributes and put them onwebsites, viewers can view them online or download to their desktops.

In accordance with one other aspect of the invention, the multimediaproduct catalogs are live, viewers only need to download them once. Thecontents will be automatically retrieved from a remote server in realtime, and viewers just need to click on the desktop E-catalog andreceive the real-time multimedia information from the businesses.

In accordance with one other aspect of the invention, each catalog canhave one small index file which can be downloaded first beforedownloading the bulk contents. The index file may contain a cover page,category buttons, remote server information for downloading, totalnumber of contents and the content identification numbers.

In accordance with one other aspect of the invention, when there areupdates or new contents in any of the downloaded catalogs, specialsymbol will appear on the desktop program shortcut icon and the cover ofeach catalog that has updates or new contents.

In accordance with one other aspect of the invention, the livemultimedia product catalog that integrates with on-line stores allowsbusinesses to easily define their product category tree for each livecatalog. If businesses do not define their own category, then thedefault category tree will be used.

In accordance with one other aspect of the invention, the livemultimedia product catalog that integrates with on-line stores allowsbusinesses to easily register new ads or products, and select any livecatalogs, set the play mode: to be played automatically or to be listedonly under the category buttons, and set the time and date for each adsor product to be published in the selected catalogs.

In accordance with one other aspect of the invention, each catalog canhave a partner list so that businesses in the partner list can selectthis catalog according to the catalog's attributes and publish their adsor product info to this catalog.

In accordance with one other aspect of the invention, the contents sendby businesses in the partner list may subject to review of the catalogowner. The catalog owner may delete the contents at his discretion.

In accordance with one other aspect of the invention, there is anautomatic billing system: the owner of the catalog can set the pricingfor each ad or product listings, the other businesses that send theirads or products into this catalog will automatically get an estimationof the cost so that they can make changes according to their budgets.Once the ads or products are submitted, the actual cost will be recordedand send to the businesses automatically.

In accordance with one other aspect of the invention, the ads orproducts in each catalog can be played in the automatic mode, or belisted under each category, or be found through key word search box.

In accordance with one other aspect of the invention, each ad or productin the desktop E-catalogs are directly linked with on-line stores. Eachad or product can be checked out from different sources of on-linestores. If a viewer is interested in one product, click on a “buy”button, he can check out from the designated on-line store.

In accordance with one other aspect of the invention, each ad or productin the desktop E-catalogs are in the web-content format, like dhtml.

In accordance with one other aspect of the invention, the livee-catalogs can be put on portable storage medium, such as CD, DVD, flashmemory cards, portable hard-disk etc. The desktop application programsand the installation programs may also be included in the portablestorage medium. Users can directly download the live catalogs onto theirPCs using these portable mediums.

In accordance with one other aspect of the invention, the livee-catalogs can be used as live communication channels between businessesand their customers. Each live e-catalog is equivalent to a cable TVchannel except using internet and also integrated with online stores.Viewers only need to click on the desktop live catalogs to receive themultimedia information send by the businesses.

In accordance with one other aspect of the invention, many businesses'live e-catalogs can be put in one portable storage medium, like DVD, CDetc. This portable medium is equivalent to having many businesses'website in one portable medium.

In accordance with one other aspect of the invention, the livee-catalogs can be used as a convenient tool for person to exchangepictures or videos, in this case, we may call the live e-catalogs aslive albums. A person can set up different live albums for his friendsor family. His friends or family only need to download the album onceonto their desktop. Later on, his friends or family can just click onthe desktop album to receive the latest photos or videos send by him,without going through the trouble of opening e-mails and save eachpicture one by one.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of the live multimedia catalogsystem that integrates with online stores in accordance with theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a new live multimedia product catalogsystem that integrates with online stores. The following description ispresented to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use theinvention as provided in the context of a particular application and itsrequirements. Various modifications to the preferred embodiment will beapparent to those with skill in the art and the general principlesdefined herein may be applied to other embodiments. Therefore, thepresent invention is not intended to be limited to the particularembodiments shown and described, but is to be accorded the widest scopeconsistent with the principles and novel features herein disclosed.

The live multimedia product catalog system that integrates with onlinestores may include at least one online provider of advertisements oronline goods 100, a module 110 to make and edit catalogs, a module 120to publish ads or online goods to catalogs, portable storage medium 170,a network management module 130, and desktop application programs 160 toread and retrieve live catalogs.

The at least one online provider of advertisements 100 has securedlog-ins for users 140. The users can easily define different kinds oflive catalogs according to their customers' classifications. Setattributes to each catalog such as catalog category, targeted area,targeted population etc. Select different templates for each catalog,upload the cover page, background music etc.

Users can define their own product category tree, or use the defaultcategory tree.

Users can register their products or ads according to their own productcategory tree, or use the default category tree. Each productregistration can include all the elements of online store productlistings, such as title, price, return policy, detailed description,photos and videos. For the said invention, each product registrationalso include the designated online store for checking out, otherwise,the default online store will be used for checking out.

Once products or ads are registered, user can select any of his livecatalogs, set the play mode: to be played automatically or to be listedunder the category buttons, and set the date and time the product or adwill be published in the catalogs.

When viewers open the live catalog, he may view the contents inautomatically play mode, or look them up under the category buttons ordo a key word search using the search box.

The catalog owner can set up a partner list for each of his livecatalogs, so that the partners in the list will be able to select thiscatalog according to its attributes, send their products or ads directlyinto the said owner's catalogs. The said owner has the authority toreview and delete the listings from his partners.

There is also an automatic billing system: the owner of the catalog canset the pricing of each ad or product listings. Businesses that send adsto this catalog will automatically get an estimate of the cost, and thebusinesses can then make changes according to their budget. Once ads aresubmitted, actual bills will be automatically generated and send to thebusinesses.

The live catalogs can be put on any websites for viewers to view online,or download them to their desktops. To view these catalogs on desktop,the viewers need to download a desktop application program which we maycall live catalog reader. The user can also put the live catalogs onportable storage medium 170, such as CD, DVD, flash memory cards,portable hard-disk etc. The desktop application programs and theinstallation programs may also be included in the portable storagemedium. Users can directly download the live catalogs onto their PCsusing these portable storage mediums.

For easy of use, the desktop program can be represented by a shortcuticon on the desktop, viewers only need to click on the icon to open thecatalog reader. When there are updates or new contents in any of thedownloaded catalogs, special symbol will appear on the desktop shortcuticon and the cover of each catalog that has updates or new contents. Thesaid catalog is live in the sense that it only needs to be downloadedonce. Once it's downloaded to the desktop of a computer connected to theinternet, the content updating module of the desktop application programwill periodically check the remote server for any updates or revisionsof any contents in any catalogs downloaded. If any updates or revisionsdetected, it will automatically retrieve the updated contents. So theviewers just need to click on the desktop catalog to view the latestmultimedia ads or product info sent by the businesses. All ads orproducts are in rich content format, and viewers can see all thedetailed product info as listed on line. If the viewer is interested inbuying the product, just click on the “buy” button, he will be directedto the designated online store to check out the product.

To speed up the downloading process, each live catalog may include asmall index file which may contain a cover page, category buttons,remote server information for downloading, total number of contents andthe content identification numbers. When viewers download a livecatalog, the index file will be downloaded first. After index file isdownloaded, the content updating program will automatically start, whichperiodically check the remote server for any updates of any of thedownloaded live catalogs and automatically retrieve the updatedcontents.

Whenever there are any new contents in any of the downloaded catalogs,the desktop shortcut icon will change to a different icon. After theviewer read the new contents, the desktop icon will go back to thenormal one. Once the viewers open the catalog reader, there is a specialsymbol on the cover of those catalogs with new un-read contents. Thespecial symbol will disappear once the viewer read the new contents.

1. A live multimedia product catalog system that integrates with on linestores comprising: At least one on-line provider of advertisements oron-line goods A module to make and edit different catalogs A module topublish on-line advertisements or on-line goods to selected catalogs Anetwork management module Portable storage medium And desktopapplication programs to retrieve multimedia catalogs automatically anddisplay the contents.
 2. The live multimedia product catalog system ofclaim 1, wherein businesses can easily make different multimediacatalogs, set each catalog's attributes, put them on websites. Viewerscan view these catalogs online or download them to the desktops.
 3. Thelive multimedia product catalog system of claim 2, wherein eachcatalog's attribute may contain indication whether the catalog is opento all viewers, or only open to a special group of people so that itrequires a password to download or to open the catalog.
 4. The livemultimedia product catalog system of claim 2, wherein each catalog'sattribute may contain description of each catalog, its targetedlocation, the profiles of the targeted viewers etc.
 5. The livemultimedia product catalog system of claim 1, wherein the multimediaproduct catalogs downloaded to the desktop are live, viewers only needto download them once. The desktop application program periodicallycheck the remote server hosting the catalogs for any updates or newcontents in each of the downloaded catalogs, and automatically downloadthe updates or new contents. Viewers only need to open the desktopcatalogs to receive the latest multimedia information from businesses.6. The live multimedia product catalog system of claim 1, wherein eachcatalog can have one small index file which can be downloaded firstbefore downloading the bulk contents. The index file may contain a coverpage, category buttons, remote hosting server information fordownloading, total number of contents and each content's identificationnumber etc.
 7. The live multimedia product catalog system of claim 1,wherein the desktop application program can be placed on the desktopusing a shortcut icon. And special symbols are placed on the shortcuticon and on the cover page of each catalog to indicate that there areupdates or new contents in any of the catalogs downloaded.
 8. The livemultimedia product catalog system of claim 1, wherein businesses caneasily define the product category tree for each catalog. Otherwise, thedefault category will be used.
 9. The live multimedia product catalogsystem of claim 1, wherein businesses can easily register new ads orproducts, and select any catalogs according to their attributes, set thetime and date for each ad or product to be published in the catalog. 10.The live multimedia product catalog system of claim 1, wherein the ownerof each catalog can set a partner list for the catalog, so thatbusinesses in the partner list can select this catalog and publish theirads or products to this catalog.
 11. The live multimedia product catalogsystem of claim 10, wherein the owner of each catalog has the right toreview and delete ads or products send by businesses in the partnerlist.
 12. The live multimedia product catalog system of claim 10,wherein there is an automatic billing system: the owner of the catalogcan set the pricing for each ad or product listings, the otherbusinesses that send their ads or products into this catalog willautomatically get an estimation of the cost so that they can makechanges according to their budgets. Once the ads or products aresubmitted, the actual cost will be recorded and send to the businesses.13. The live multimedia product catalog system of claim 1, wherein theads or products in each catalog can be played in the automatic mode, orbe listed under each category, or be found through key word search box.14. The live multimedia product catalog system of claim 1, wherein eachad or product in the catalog can have a different designated link to anonline store for checking out. If no designated online store link isprovided, the default online store will be used. Once a viewer isinterested in buying the product, click on the “buy” button of thecatalog, he will be directed to the designated online store to checkout.
 15. The live multimedia product catalog system of claim 1, whereineach ads or products in the catalogs are in the web-content format, likedhtml.
 16. The live multimedia product catalog system of claim 1,wherein the catalogs can be put on portable storage medium, such as CD,DVD, flash memory cards, portable hard-disks etc. The desktopapplication programs and the installation programs may also be includedin the portable storage medium. Users can directly download the livecatalogs into their PCs using these portable storage medium.
 17. Thelive multimedia product catalog system of claim 1, wherein each catalogis a desktop live communication channel between businesses and theircustomers, combined with online store.
 18. The live multimedia productcatalog system of claim 1, wherein many businesses' live catalogs can beput on portable storage medium, such as CD, DVD, magnetic storagedevices, flash memory cards etc. These portable medium is equivalent tocontaining many businesses' websites.
 19. The live multimedia productcatalog system of claim 1, wherein each live catalog can be used forfriends and family members to exchange pictures and videos without goingthrough the traditional process of sending through E-mail and thendownload them to their desktops. The pictures or videos areautomatically downloaded to the desktops.